Doctors successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human for the first time, Massachusetts General Hospital reported Thursday.
A 62-year-old man with end-stage kidney received the genetically-edited kidney during a four-hour surgery on Saturday.
“Mass General Brigham researchers and clinicians are constantly pushing the boundaries of science to transform medicine and solve significant health issues facing our patients in their lives,” hospital president and CEO Anne Klibanski said in a statement.
The transplant took place seven decades after Brigham and Women’s Hospital performed the first successful human organ transplant of a kidney in 1954. The hospital called Saturday’s surgery a major milestone in being able to provide organs to patients more readily.
The pig kidney was genetically edited using CRISPR technology that removed harmful pig genes and added some human genes to improve its compatibility. Scientists also deactivated some retroviruses in the donor kidney to eliminate the risk of infection to the human patient who received it.
The hospital has been working with a company called eGenesis for the past five years to edit the genes of organs and tissues that are transplanted from other species.
“We are grateful for the courageous contribution of the patient and to the advancement of transplantation science,” eGenesis CEO Mike Curtis said in a statement.
Curtis said the pig kidney transplant “represents a new frontier in medicine and demonstrates the potential of genome engineering to change the lives of millions of patients globally suffering from kidney failure.”
Transplantation of organs from other species holds the potential to alleviate a global organ shortage. Every year, about 50,000 die waiting for an organ transplant, according to the World Health Organization. More than 100,000 people in the U.S. wait for an organ for transplant and 17 people die each day while waiting, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing.
Kidneys are the most common organs needed for transplant.
The patient who received the pig kidney transplant, Rick Slayman, of Weymouth, Mass., is currently recovering at the hospital and is expected to be discharged.
“I have been a Mass General Transplant Center patient for 11 years and have the highest level of trust in the doctors, nurses and clinical staff who have cared for me,” Slayman said in a statement.
Slayman had already received a transplanted kidney, but it began failing in 2023. When his Transplant Center team suggested a pig kidney transplant, he said, “I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”